For ninety minutes and more, the Vitality Stadium believed. AFC Bournemouth had done the hard yards, had led through a moment of quick-witted brilliance, and had defended the lead with the sort of nerve that suggested a corner was about to be turned. Then, deep into stoppage time, James Tarkowski climbed to meet a corner and the whole picture warped. Bournemouth 1, Everton 1. A goal to lose two precious points, and to gift Everton the momentum of a side that simply refuses to be beaten.

It was the kind of finish that leaves one dressing room hollow and the other giddy. Everton arrived third in the table and departed with their unbeaten start intact, salvaged by their centre-half in the final breath. Bournemouth, meanwhile, were left staring at a scoreboard that felt like theft, a first victory of the campaign snatched from their grasp at the very last. The margins in this league are thin, and here they were sliced to a single set-piece.

Scott lights the fuse

The decisive first-half moment belonged to Alex Scott, and it was a thing of genuine craft. Four minutes before the interval, Bournemouth broke at pace, Evanilson carrying the ball into space and picking out his man with the composure of a side that had drilled this exact scenario. Scott took his cue, arrived in the centre of the box, and steered a right-footed shot low into the bottom-left corner. The finish had no fuss about it, only certainty.

It was a goal built on speed and directness, the hallmarks of a Bournemouth team who thrive when they can turn a match into a foot race. Evanilson's assist was the product of a fast break that caught Everton square, and Scott's timing of his run was immaculate. The home crowd roared as if sensing that this, at last, might be the afternoon their patience was rewarded.

For a side that had taken only a single point from its opening two fixtures, the lead carried real weight. Half-time arrived with Bournemouth ahead and in control of the contest's tempo, and the sense grew that a first win of the season was there to be seized. All they had to do was hold on.

Everton refuse to fold

Everton, though, are made of stubborn stuff this season. Having won one and drawn one of their opening games, they had built their early standing on resilience rather than flourish, and here that resilience was tested to its limit. For long stretches of the second half they pressed without reward, unable to find the incision to prise open a home defence that stood tall and kept its shape.

The clock ticked, the anxiety in the away end swelled, and still the equaliser would not come. It seemed Everton might have to settle for a first defeat of the campaign, their unbeaten record surrendered on a day when their attack lacked its cutting edge. But this is a team that plays until the whistle, and their persistence earned them one final corner deep into added time.

From it, salvation. James Tarkowski, the archetypal defender who scores when it matters most, timed his leap and steered a right-footed effort from the right of the box into the centre of the goal. It was the ninety-first minute. The travelling supporters erupted, and a point that had looked lost was suddenly, deliriously, theirs. It was a goal of pure will, the reward for refusing to accept defeat.

What the table says

The consequences ripple in opposite directions. Everton climb the standings on four points from their opening three matches, a haul that speaks of a side quietly assembling a platform. One win, two draws, still unbeaten — third place is lofty for so early in the season, but they have earned the right to occupy it. That they have done so without always dominating games is, in its own way, more encouraging still.

For Bournemouth, the mathematics are less kind. A single point from three games leaves them twelfth, with a goal difference in the red and a nagging sense of chances not taken. To have led, to have controlled, and to have conceded so late is the sort of setback that lingers. Two points dropped in the ninety-first minute is a heavy toll on a season still finding its feet.

The distance between the two clubs in the table — third against twelfth — flatters neither the closeness of this contest nor the fine margins that decided it. Bournemouth were the better side for much of the ninety minutes. They simply could not see it through, and in this division that failing is punished without mercy.

The road ahead

Everton will take enormous heart from the manner of this rescue. A team that scores in the ninety-first minute to preserve an unbeaten start is a team with belief coursing through it, and that belief tends to compound. Their attacking edge remains a work in progress, but the spirit is unmistakable, and spirit wins points when polish is absent. Third place, however early, is a marker of intent.

Bournemouth face the harder reckoning. There was much to admire in their performance — the sharp transitions, Scott's finish, the discipline of their defensive work — and precious little to fault until the final act. The challenge now is to bottle the good and banish the memory of the ending. Points squandered this late have a way of haunting a season if the lessons are not swiftly learned.

In the end this was a match of one cruel swing, a story rewritten in its closing seconds. Everton leave with a point and their momentum intact; Bournemouth leave wondering how they let it slip. The Vitality Stadium had believed for ninety minutes. James Tarkowski made sure the belief would have to wait for another day.